Friday, April 16, 2004

The Universe embraces all polarities. It expresses and contains both poles in any polarity: existence-nonexistence, nonliving-living, body-mind.

One of the polarities it seamlessly and effortlessly expresses is that of function and aesthetics. Everything in the Universe is function, and also - to us - astonishingly beautiful.

Every pattern expressed in the Universe and the Earth has particular functions. The branching pattern distributes. Explosion patterns spreads. Cracking patterns allows for expansion and contraction of rigid materials. Spiral patterns allows for slow expansion or contraction.

We can learn from these patterns and their functions, and apply them to designs on all scales and areas. Doing that can help us to integrate more seamlessly both function (efficiently and effectively) and beauty.

It is also an expression of our acknowledgement of the wisdom of the Universe. A wisdom that is - and must be - far beyond any human wisdom as we are just a small segment of this immensely large whole. We express the patterns and processes of the Universe, but the Universe is always more and different from our experience of it.